Russia is looking to produce a minimum of 60,000 metric tonnes of lithium carbonate by the end of this decade, its natural resources ministry has confirmed on March 17, 2025. This is done so as to diminish its dependency when it comes to imports and at the same time throttle production as far as high-capacity batteries are concerned.
It is well to be noted that lithium, as well as other critical minerals such as rare earth metals, has gone on to garner immense global attention as US President Trump focused on countering the dominance of China within the sector through offering production deals to both Russia and Ukraine.
Lithium, which happens to be a metal that’s necessary for electric vehicle production, happens to be included in the list of 50 minerals that are deemed to be critical by the US Geological Survey. Russia, apparently, has gone on to report 3.5 million tonnes of reserves of lithium oxides. Interestingly, the US Geological Survey went on to estimate lithium reserves in Russia to be around 1 million tonnes in 2024 – which is the 14th largest in the world. Lithium oxide has around one-third pure lithium. On the other hand, lithium carbonate has almost 20% pure lithium.
According to the ministry, the industrial lithium production in Russia is expected to start in 2030.
As per President Vladimir Putin, Russia must go ahead and speed up its plans to mine the deposits of lithium. It is worth noting that demand when it comes to lithium has grown in the years gone by as companies from Russia work on the mass production of lithium batteries as well as electric vehicles. The ministry added that Russia has traditionally imported lithium, and hence now it is indeed very important that they launch facilities faster and also raise the extraction and processing of this resource, which is indeed strategically very important for their economy.
The ministry said that it has gone on to issue licenses for exploration across three main lithium deposits—Polmostundrovskoye and Kolmozerskoye in the regions from Murmansk in northwestern Russia and Tastygskoye from the Tuva region, which shares its borders with Mongolia. All three deposits, as well as their adjacent production plants, are expected to be operational by the decade’s end. Significantly, Russia mined just around 27 tonnes of lithium as a byproduct in 2023 in the Ural Mountain region.
Apparently, Kolmozerskoye, which has one-fourth of Russia’s lithium reserves, happens to be operated by Polar Liithium, which is a JV of Nornickel—the Russian metal giant—and Rosatom—the state-owned firm in nuclear energy. On the other hand, Arctic Lithium—a private firm—happens to hold the license for Polmostundrovskoye, and Elbrusmetall-Lithium, which is a subsidiary of state defense and industrial conglomerate Rostech, happens to hold the license for Tastygskoye.